Thursday, April 16, 2015

France: Observations

Random Facts/Observations:

Voice over actors in France will often get a role for a specific actor or actress and maintain their sole voice over actor for the remainder of their career. For example, Samuel L Jackson's v.o. guy is always the same guy.

American shows (like The Nanny, How I Met Your Mother and The Bold and The Beautiful) are voiced over and on all the time. But the voice over guys range from pretty good (soap operas - they're dramatic anyway, so this just works) to pretty lousy (How I Met Your Mother - you don't get Barney's special delivery style or Marshall's boyishness. It's just fast over-talking.)

CNN and SkyNews are on in English, so if you're craving a language that you understand, look for news.

Lunch and Dinner in a home in France have three parts. Entré, Main and Dessert. They might be small, but they are FILLING. Lunch has typically been after 1pm and dinner around 8pm.

When greeting someone in Paris, it is typical to kiss on both cheeks. It is slow and precise/deliberate. Not rushed like the one cheek kiss in Australia. Because of the speed, it is not at all uncomfortable or confusing, like you might've seen in the movies or on TV.

French kids have to learn two foreign languages in school. Mostly they choose English and German, but they start earlier than high school so by the time they're done with school, they are pretty good at English at least - and I really appreciate that.

Every car I've ridden in has been a small, two-door vehicle. Mostly Citroën. Looking around, I see that MOST cars on the road are compact size or smaller. There are the occasional full sized cars, but very rarely will you see an SUV or larger.

The French drive on the right side of the road with distance measured in Kilometres.

It is exhausting to listen to French conversations and not speak french but try really hard to understand. It just wipes me out, but I feel really good when I "get it" by context or by recognising the few words I do understand. Totally worth it.

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Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving – Terry Pratchett